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Convicted Killer Delbert Huber Dead At 83

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A convicted killer recently questioned in the disappearance of Jacob Wetterling has died.

Delbert Huber, 83, passed away just one day after he sat down for an interview with WCCO’s Esme Murphy. Authorities say foul play is not suspected.

Huber was serving time in the geriatric unit of the Faribault Correctional Facility. He was convicted along with his 48-year-old son, Tim, for the 2011 murder of a teacher in an argument over $50.

During his interview with Esme Murphy, he repeatedly denied any involvement in Jacob Wetterling’s disappearance. Authorities questioned him in recent weeks after receiving numerous tips from the public.

“All these people are telling stories, they’re lying,” Huber said.

Twenty-five years after Delbert Huber was first questioned in the Wetterling case, his circumstances have changed. But his story has not.

“Never had nothing to do with the Jacob Wetterling kid, never,” he said.

Law enforcement recently paid Huber a visit after receiving numerous tips following a WCCO story about unsolved sexual assaults on boys in Paynesville. All of assaults happened two years before Wetterling was kidnapped.

Tipsters pointed out Huber’s passing resemblance to sketches of possible suspects, and similarities in the tone of his voice and stature.

“These other people in town there, I never had nothing to do with them either,” Huber said.

He repeatedly referred to the recent attention as harassment during his interview with Murphy on Tuesday.

“They want to pin something on somebody and they don’t know where the hell to go or look,” he said.

Murphy says the people of Paynesville singled out Huber because of his notorious behavior.

“This is a guy though who clearly a lot of people in that community have said, ‘If anyone could have abducted Jacob Wetterling, this guy might have,'” Murphy said.

During the nearly hour-long interview, Murphy says Huber’s health issues were obvious. She says he complained of stomach and foot problems and arrived to the interview in a wheelchair.

But according to Murphy, those frailties faded when asked about the Paynesville community.

“I’m shocked that he died because he did not seem that he was that infirm,” she said. “He almost seemed too mean to die. At that point, he was so angry at so many things.”

The finality of death has closed this part of investigation. Jacob Wetterling’s disappearance remains a mystery 25 years later.

Huber’s death is under investigation by the Minnesota Department of Corrections, which is standard procedure.

Rachel Slavik joined the WCCO team in October of 2010 and is thrilled to be back in her hometown. Rachel spent three years in the sweltering heat of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She anchored, produced, and reported at WVLA. During her time in the Deep...